Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and then Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, right, visit new headquarters of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) in Moscow, Russia, on Nov. 8, 2006. The U.S. Justice Department announced charges Oct. 4, 2018, against seven GRU officers.(Photo: DMITRY ASTAKHOV / POOL, EPA-EFE)

WASHINGTON – Seven Russian GRU intelligence officers were charged with hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the USA and around the world, Justice Department officials announced Thursday.

According to the 41-page indictment, the criminal activity was retaliation against people and organizations who revealed Russia’s doping program for its athletes – revelations that led to the stripping of dozens of Olympic medals from Russian athletes and a ban on that country's athletes from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The hacking that began in December 2014 and continued until at least May 2018 intruded into computers and networks of U.S. citizens and corporations and international corporations and their workers, the officials said.

“In other words, Russia cheated,” said Scott Brady, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania. “They cheated, they got caught, they were banned from the Olympics, they were mad and they retaliated. In retaliating, they broke the law, so they are criminals.”

The conspiracy aimed to publicize stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine the efforts of international anti-doping organizations, according to the charges. Another goal was to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming that they used banned or performance-enhancing drugs, officials said.

“All of this was done to undermine those organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympic and other games," said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

Other targets of the alleged conspiracy included a chemical weapons lab in The Hague, Netherlands, and Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear-power company in Pennsylvania that provides nuclear fuel to Ukraine.

The charges were related to an intelligence operation against Russian agents in The Hague attempting to breach the cybersecurity of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which Dutch and United Kingdom officials announced Thursday. The prime ministers of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s behavior.

Twelve Russian GRU military intelligence officers and 13 Russian nationals and businesses were indicted this year as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election. GRU is an acronym for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Though the latest charges are not tied to Mueller’s investigation, some of the same GRU officers are charged, Demers said. Participating in the investigation were the FBI’s cyberdivision and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Besides 250 athletes in 30 countries, targets included the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal; the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports in Ottawa, Canada; the International Association of Athletes Federations in Monaco; and the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The group known as Fancy Bears' Hack Team targeted athletes and anti-doping officials to reveal personal health information about them, according to Eric Welling, the FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyberdivision. When the GRU officers couldn't hack computers remotely, they traveled to Switzerland, the Netherlands and Brazil to gain access to computers of traveling officials through hotel Wi-Fi systems, he said.

“The GRU is breaking traditional international norms and the law in using cybertools and resources in the way that they have,” Welling said. “The charges reinforce this behavior is not acceptable and violates international norms as well as U.S. criminal laws.”

Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said the charges provided a reassuring outcome for clean athletes everywhere, particularly the ones whose private information was revealed through the “despicable” hacking.

“These illegal and malicious acts were a desperate attempt to divert attention away from Russia’s state-sponsored doping program and were part of a broader scheme of corrupt and unethical behavior by the Russian government to manipulate international Olympic sport, of which the world now has the incontestable facts: A system that was abusing its own athletes with an institutionalized doping program has now been indicted for perpetrating cyberattacks on innocent athletes from around the world while yet again trying to win by any means,” Tygart said in a statement.

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John Demers (L), assistant attorney general for the US Department of Justice National Security Division, announces criminal charges against seven Russian Federation GRU intelligence officers in Washington, DC on Oct. 4, 2018. The group, which includes several agents recently arrested at The Hague, are charged with hacking individuals and organizations in the United States, Canada and Europe. Those organizations include several anti-doping agencies, chemical weapons enforcement, and Westinghouse, according to the indictment. ERIK S. LESSER, EPA-EFE

Justice Department handout picture of Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets' Russian government issued diplomatic passport, which was included as an exhibit in the indictment Oct. 4, 2018, of seven Russian GRU intelligence officers, who are charged with hacking computers of 250 athletes and anti-doping organizations in the U.S. and around the world. Authorities pressed the charges in U.S. District Court in western Pennsylvania to discourage hacking even though all of the defendants are in Russia and unlikely to face trial. US Department of Justice

Justice Department handout picture of a rental car allegedly used by Russian GRU intelligence officers filled with computer-hacking gear, which was included as an exhibit in a criminal indictment Oct. 4, 2018. The car was parked outside the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, which authorities say was targeted for hacking by the Russians. US Department of Justice

Justice Department handout picture of a rental car allegedly used by Russian GRU intelligence officers parked next to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) property in The Hague, with the trunk filled with computer-hacking gear facing the OPCW. US Department of Justice

Justice Department handout picture of computer gear, money and other materials found in a rental car allegedly used by Russian GRU intelligence officers who were indicted Oct. 4, 2018. US Department of Justice

A man walks past the building of the Russian military intelligence service in Moscow, Russia on July 14, 2018. Russia's military intelligence service GRU is attracting increasing attention as allegations mount of devious and deadly operations on and off the field of battle. Pavel Golovkin, AP

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All the officers were charged with conspiring to access computers without authorization, wire fraud and money laundering for buying computer equipment with cryptocurrencies. Five of the officers were charged with aggravated identify theft. One, Ivan Segeyevich Yermakov, 32, was charged with wire fraud for allegedly targeting Westinghouse employees for hacking through a technique called "spear-phishing."

“We are fighting back to protect U.S. citizens and organizations from criminal cyberattacks funded by the Russian government,” Brady said. “These seven defendants are charged with the pervasive campaign of hacking, stealing private and sensitive information and publicizing that information to retaliate against Russia’s detractors and sway public opinion in Russia’s favor."

The 11-count indictment alleged that Russians “engaged in a sustained effort” to penetrate Democratic Party repositories of information. The group allegedly conspired to hack into computers of state election boards, secretaries of state and U.S. companies that supplied technology for elections.

The indictments contained no allegations that the actions altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the election.

In February, 13 Russian nationals and three businesses – including an internet firm tied to the Kremlin – were charged with waging “information warfare against the United States.”

The good news is that the indictments show the United States is capable of doing very high-level attribution of those who attack it, down to their names and military units, said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer of CrowdStrike, a computer security company that tracks international attackers.

But the United States is also routinely attacked by China, Iran and North Korea, he cautioned.

“We see China as the most prevalent actor in terms of orchestrating attacks against U.S. and broadly Western organizations. We shouldn't lose sight of that as we talk about Russia – there are others out there who are also causing problems for our national security.”